Home Distiller

I just swung by one of the few hardwood shops we have here on the way home and asked if they had any white oak scraps laying around. Well, not scraps per se, but they had this 6ft long board (1 1/8" x 3 1/2") they sold me for $5. The guy thought it was white oak, but wasn't sure. According to him it was reclaimed air dried and untreated. Appears to be heartwood, maybe some sapwood mixed in? I don't know anything about wood though. So what do I have? Should I go split it and get the aluminum foil and propane torch?

I have some mead brandy that I think needs oak and a molasses wash to distill tomorrow.

Here's the end And a shot of the grain

Looks like red oak from here.

None of the pore structure tells me its any type of oak. Neither does the coloring. Got any non-macro shots of the board?

Don't use it until you know what it is!

that second pic looks like walnut.

That end shot sure doesn't look like oak to me. Every oak I've cut and seen looks alot tighter than that piece in your shot. bd.

don't look to me like oak, and defenly not white oak. what ever it is looks like it has been cut from a diseased log or started to rot.
oak is cream /amber some times with a redish tinge.red oak has open pores, white has closed.

Looks like red oak to me.

The pore structure is too small to be oak. Walnut comes to mind with the varied colors, and walnut is not something you want to soak your product in.

Judging wood species via two BAD photos is foolish, at best. And dangerous with what we do with it the wood. Go find someone locally who KNOWS woods. The bozo who sold that as oak is not the guy you want to ask again.

Thanks for the reply guys.

I'll keep looking for some white oak then. Lowes doesn't have any.

For practice I did toast it at 300F, 380F, and 420F wrapped in aluminum foil for a few hours. I crushed up a few splinters from each and tasted them and they taste like oak cubes and chips that I've bought. Mmm tasty

My mead brandy that I finished distilling today is looking at me and begging for a light oaking.

I dont think you want to be buying oak for this hobby from lowes, who knows what they might have treated it with. I would go with a local sawmill if possible, or even a local lumber yard where someone knowlegable could tell you if its untreated. I honestly cut my own..... take a log and cut out of the center with a bow saw or other clean handsaw, not a chainsaw (bar oil). If you can, that would be the best.....atleast you know where it came from. Has anyone else here successfully used oak from the big name stores? maybe Im wrong? ......... wouldnt be the first time

lowes has invaded nz. wow. there are 400 species of oak and i am not qualified to guess how many are compatable with aging. but i am qualified to comment on these pictures. in the first picture the grain runs diagonaly from lower left to upper right, the line of pores. the lines that are perpendicular to the pores, lower right to upper left are called rays and make this end grain look very much like white oak. the second picture also looks like oak but the wrong color, that color probably comes from mineral striping and spalt, from that knot. are there other areas on that board that share the lighter color of the end grain? i am not sure how many of those 400 species grow in the u.s. but it seems like only 8-10. if american white oak is the only one of 400 oaks that is good to age with find a good furniture maker and box his scrap. take your board for his opinion. cob

I cut lots of oak. Cabinets, furnature and the like.
If i could run it thru my saw or planer I'd tell ya in a 1/2 sec.

In the mean time.........still looks like red oak from here.

lwcts you could be right about red oak i only base my white oak comments on the end grain color, and assumed the field colors to be introduced from minerals and spalt, because my only point of reference for red oak is american red oak, which is pretty plain, not having that range of color. that one picture shows easily 10 hues. any idea how many oaks are indigenous to aus. nz. ? could it be local? cob

Ahh, sorry guys, I took that pic when I was on vacation in NC, USA. The board that I got had several colors.... one half of it was that light cream that you see a stripe of in the picture and the other half was dark. The color follows the grain. I'm off vacation and left the wood behind so I can't take any more pics. I wanted to get some practice while I wasn't doing anything over the holidays and, if it was the right wood, to send some back home.

sbeghan i just reread your origional post. do not use recyled/reclaimed wood. it could have been in a toxic environment for a hundred years and you have no way to know. cob

The end grain does look like red oak. I have 600 board feet of it cut up in my shed. If it was Reclaimed or salvaged wood, It may have been sunk in water for many years to get the dark grain shown in pic 2. Otherwise red oak is very light in color compared to mahogony or walnut, and could be a possibility for pic 2. Whatever it is I wouldn't be using it for aging, the darn thing is so pretty it should be made into furniture or cabnets so it can be seen.